Success Stories Series: Simplifying Workflows with 9xx

At Midwest Tape, we take pride in our ability to help libraries solve problems. As a customer-focused company, we do our best to work with libraries to develop solutions that work for their specific situations. In an effort to share workable solutions as well as better illustrate our resources, we will be sharing some of our success stories here on News & Views.

In this entry, IT tester and coordinator Walt Waltzer shares his experiences with 9xx ordering:

One of the more important aspects of the library business is collection development. When collection development becomes time consuming and complicated, the library and its patrons suffer the burden. One way we try to help lighten library workloads is setting up 9xx ordering.

9xx ordering is a method in which a customer uses capabilities of their ILS to electronically assist with the ordering process. 9xx refers to a MARC record tag (in the 900s) that is populated with unique customer information to allow the electronic submission or import of orders.  Adding 9xx can greatly improve workflows by reducing the time spent developing collections and simplifying the steps to do so.

9xx in Action

One of our customers was overwhelmed by the complexity of their collection development workflow. The below slide shows their initial workflow and includes at least 15 distinct steps to the process including printing copies and handwriting orders, two very time and resource consuming steps.

Initial workflow; click view larger size.

 Through collaboration with Midwest Tape, this library decided to use 9xx to improve the accuracy of their orders and greatly reduce the amount of time needed to develop collections. By doing so, this customer was able to streamline the process down to 6 steps, as shown below. This also brought better order tracking and monitoring which allows for better communication with patron material requests.

After 9xx; click to view larger size

 Interested in setting up 9xx ordering with Midwest Tape? Contact Customer Service at 800.875.2785 to be connected with a 9xx specialist.

This has been the first installment in our Success Stories series. Do you have a success story you’d like to share? Email newsandviews@midwesttapes.com to share your experience. You can also post your experiences with 9xx or your feedback on this series here as comments.